Paula Deen may have lost her publisher but her book sales are up. / Carlo Allegri AP

by Lindsay Deutsch, USA TODAY

by Lindsay Deutsch, USA TODAY

Cooking up sales: Paula Deen's week of bad publicity, which included her publisher Ballantine dropping her October-scheduled cookbook, was good news for sales of her previous cookbooks. Publishers Weekly reports that Deen sold more than 4,000 books last week, up from 500 the week before.

Amazon pricing: What is bookselling tycoon Amazon doing now that competitors like Barnes & Noble and indie bookshops are struggling? It's raising prices, David Streitfield of The New York Times reports. But, Streitfield admits, "It is difficult to comprehensively track the movement of prices on Amazon, so the evidence is anecdotal and fragmentary." The story has sparked industry debate, including a takedown by Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader in which he finds the story "delightfully absurd."

Asteroid "Iainbanks": Iain Banks, the late Scottish science fiction author who died on June 9 after a battle with gall bladder cancer, has been immortalized in space. After a successful petition from an astronomer and fan, Asteroid 5099, which resides in the Main Asteroid Belt of the Sol system, has been officially re-named as "Iainbanks." Banks' final work, The Quarry, was published posthumously in June.

Rakoff's final work: Almost a year ago, award-winning essayist, humorist and radio personality David Rakoff died of cancer at 47. At The New York Times, Joel Lovell traces the bittersweet conceptualization and writing process of Rakoff's last work, Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish -- a novel written entirely in rhyming iabmic pentameter. It's out July 16.

'The Son': John Davidson's review of The Son by Philipp Meyer at The Millions explores the novel's cinematic qualities and compares Meyer's meticulous research to that of Daniel Day-Lewis' in the film adaptation of Last of the Mohicans. USA TODAY's Bob Minzesheimer gave the novel four stars (out of four), writing that "it's as bold, ambitious and brutal as the subject: the rise of Texas as seen through the tortured history of one family."

Behind the scenes: After receiving a "landslide" of mail about their list of 100 all-time greatest novels, Entertainment Weekly explains the method behind the list, which boils down to staffers sitting in a conference room "talking about books we loved and admired."